1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to cloths suitable for use in an ink-jet system. The present invention is also directed to a textile printing method making use of such cloths and to prints obtained by that method.
2. Related Background Art
A variety of methods have been developed for the ink-jet printing of cloth materials. One such method is contrived to place a cloth in temporarily adhesive conditions on a flat, tacky and nonstretchable support, followed by printing with a printer as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-6183. Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-31594 teaches a process of pretreating a cloth with an aqueous solution containing a water-soluble polymeric material incapable of being dyed with a dye to be used, a water-soluble base or a water-insoluble inorganic pulverizate and subsequently subjecting the cloth to ink-jet dyeing. In Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-35351, a fibrous cellulose is pretreated with an aqueous solution in which incorporated are an alkaline material, urea or thiourea, and a water-soluble polymeric material, followed by ink-jet dyeing with a reactive dye-containing ink and by heat fixing in dry conditions.
The foregoing methods of the prior art are directed toward preventing image bleeding and providing sharp patterns and prints of high color brightness and color depth. However, the depth and brightness qualities attained by such prior art methods are not comparable to, or not better than, those made available by conventional textile printing methods such as screen printing. Other problems with the prior art methods are that a poor ink penetration to the cloth in its direction of thickness invites an insufficient color depth and an objectionable bleeding in case of increased ink intake, thus leading to limited application of the resulting print.